October 2005
screwballs of the month
At the rate
the need to award these has grown, every person on Earth will win an award in
October of 2045. Scary thought, eh?
from the mailbag
Here’s one from
someone trying to sell me on their new book:
JEHOVAH UNMASKED!
The True Identity of the Bible-God
Revealed
The author, Nathaniel J. Merritt, has been
hitchhiking his way to Enlightenment since he was a teen. Becoming a Jehovah's
Witness at age 15, he was later shunned by them at 19 for smoking pot and
having sex. Later in 1973, he was born again as a Jesus Freak. This
spiritual renewal led him to become a Baptist minister in 1980, where he
remained for 15 years. Then he dove into the deep waters of Zen Buddhism, and
even became a Buddhist priest. After 10 years, he returned to Christianity, but
some say he returned as a heretic and blasphemer...
This book is the culmination of all his seeking and
study. In this book, Merritt draws back the curtain on an ancient mysterious,
spiritual path that the Catholic church has suppressed
since Christianity began. Keeping it light and easy to read, the author takes
the reader down the rabbit hole of the real Matrix, and turns the world upside
down and inside out. Discover for yourself the lies of God in the Garden of
Eden, and the Truth told by the Serpent.
http://www.lulu.com/mojavenate
Bad as is, but after
that I got this public service announcement from the Politically Correct
Police. My words quoted from the article are in
bold:
What you find below are examples of the answers you gave to
an article by James Buckner. Some of your answers are very good but on these
ones you use unneeded tricks that border on
dishonesty. There are many others like these. Let me explain:
1. Why is the Bible
unclear about how to be saved? Is there anything more important that the Bible
could communicate? Why is it ambiguous and contradictory on this subject?
How is it ambiguous or
contradictory? Again, we are simply amazed that Buckner had these problems. But
it is easy to see why:
You know what he means. In my 17 years as a Christian I have
come across churches and whole denominations that have quite different views
about salvation. Although James’ question has to do with HOW to be saved, let
me expand the question to include important questions regarding salvation that
millions of Christians struggle with:
a) Are we saved because we are predestined or do we choose
salvation or a mixture of both? I am sure you have your opinion and may
even think it’s clear but for millions of Christians (many of them NOT stupid),
this is not clear at all.
b) Can we lose our salvation? It depends who you ask.
c) The whole age of accountability issue.
d) Is baptism necessary for salvation? Again, that you think
you have the answer is not relevant, ALL sincere Christians should be able to
understand and clearly see what is the truth about this
subject.
4. Why is the nature and
practice of the two sacraments - baptism and the Lord's Supper - left ambiguous
in the Bible, and a cause of discord among churches?
It's hard to answer without
specifics, but in terms of the idea that baptism is required for salvation, see
here
-- the confusion is all our own and comes of reading our own agenda into the
text. As for "discord", I see plenty of healthy discussion, but I
don't see congregations burning down each others' houses of worship over this.
Do you?
You again pretended not to understand his point. You know
what he means. Your caricature of the effects of the different beliefs within
Christendom is a smokescreen, there ARE many views about baptism and the Lord’s
Supper in the Christian world, as to purpose, method, meaning etc.
5. Why is the book of
Revelation incomprehensible if it is really "not sealed" (Revelation
22:10)? Why are the prophecies in the book of Daniel actually easier to
understand, if they are sealed (Daniel 12:9)?
Revelation is incomprehensible only
to those who don't do their homework. Again, why does Buckner
have problems I don't? How about some specifics?
I would not have asked the question the way James did it,
but your answer is simply untrue. There are many interpretations of the book of
Revelation, once more, you may think you know what is the correct approach and
for sure we can find ways to apply what’s there to help us in our Christian
walk, but no one knows really what the book is about. Many bright and able
scholars disagree and they have done their homework.
So, get your white flags out and start waving. Then this memo from the
Department of Bigotry:
Honor/shame? How silly to think that God can be shamed or have honor
taken away. He sounds more like a Samurai or a Klingon.............all
wrapped up in concern over his "honor". Only the insecure fret
over
"honor".
And this
from down the hall in the Da Vinci Code Conspiracy
Bureau:
As all historians and scientists
must agree we must return to the facts and relics in existence today about a
man called and known to be Jesus of
And
finally, an issue from the
There is a time for everything. Now
is your time. From this day forward you can expect that your life will fall
apart and your faith will be destoyed. Such is the
fate of those who build their house on sand. But that is not your crime, only
your weakness. The offense: vilifying truth
in exchange for lies. Do not be deceived: you will reap what you sow. Since you are planting the seeds of ridicule and falsehood,
you will shortly be exposed to the very same. Groveling before your false 'god'
will not help you. Note this day upon your calender.
You have no idea what you are dealing with.
You are an idiot.
Have you returned the money you
stole yet?
When I told
them they had won a Screwball, I got this reply:
Your e-mail to me was deleted
unread. You are a fool to think that I would read your self-righteous blab. I
know what you are doing and have alerted the proper authorities. May you burn
in your own hell.
By the way,
the person had been reading my article on Lloyd M. Graham, the guy who thinks
the earth is a burned-out sun. Yup. My faith is in
terrible danger all right.
A reader
also sent us this one:
http://www.jesusmyth.freeuk.com/
http://www.jesusmyth.freeuk.com/er008.htm
, where this issue is addressed, he seems perfectly aware of all the social
science data one needs to bludgeon his theory into submission - data that he
proclaims when it suits him, and promptly ignores when it becomes apparent that
there is precious little reason to think that Jesus was, in the Jewish sense,
buried for "3 days and 3 nights". I reckon this
particular area should be framed and hung on a wall as an example of someone
approaching the bible precisely the wrong way - ie,
with the axiom of the Gospels being guff, cos, well,
they just HAVE to be!
Finally,
another reader has a special treat for us:
And we have a winner for the first
ever
This rare and prestigious award goes to Doubting John, for his
spectacularly bad behavior in his own debate discussion thread and subsequent
"departure" from Theologyweb. This is for
the injuries sustained to your intellect and ego that precipitated your frustration
with this forum. And we have a winner for the first ever
golden duh
award winners
exegesis? We don’t need no stinkin’ exegesis!
LDSTrue
offers us the latest in Mormon internal witness hermeneutics. In response to someone
saying that the original languages dictate the meaning of a passage and that exegesis is needed to understand
them:
Revelation from the Holy Ghost is my
Rock (besides Jesus of course) and REVELATION is my FOUNDATION and not your
“sound exegetical method. I would not trade my old friend The Holy Ghost (aka HG) in for a ton of your method! No make that 10 to the
millionth power. No make that 10 to the …!
When told,Jesus didn't speak English,
and neither did Matthew write in English, he replied:
I know, but the Holy Ghost DOES!!! (aka HG) (aka my Old Friend)!!!!!!!!!!
Profile in jpholding obsessive-compulsive
disorder
Lazy Agnostic won himself a Gold Lifetime
Achievement Award for stalking me on TWeb all month,
and among other things, giving a "psychological profile" of me, right
in the same post where he said he wouldn't:
I won't offer a
psychological profile of JP but to characterize him as elitist
is an understatement of great magnitude.
His underlying sense of inadequacy, though,
compels him to his daily raison d'etre: the search
for pale comparison. He is utterly un-equipped to live without insult and
derision. He won't stop it for Christ or anyone; he can't.
Though his brand of comportment is eschewed by widely-respected apologists, he
will declare that any Christian who fails to condone
his actions, is worshipping a false Christ. He will compose
reams of rationalization to cling to his insults. JP holds himself
accountable to no one; he declares he has no need for growth.
It is apparent JP has not yet yielded his ego to a noble embrace of faith. It
is his intellect he worships so frequently and so fervently.
I guess it
is somewhat easier than answering my arguments, eh?
Lloyd m. graham needs to know about this
Teo1 posted the following on TWeb, whatever it was:
Every cell in our body' every
molecule, every atom will be rearranged so as to (hopefully) transform our
current bodies of density and morality into a vehicle of transformational
light, capable of facilitating the incoming Christ consciousness and its
immortality. It is also said that in the transformational process, our DNA
system will be rearranged from a system of 2 strands to a system of 12 or 13
strands. Our chakras will also be rearranged and increased, going from 7 to 12
or 13. Our atoms will be increased and rearranged in order to facilitate the
incoming light (Christ consciousness).
Following through with the transformational theory, it seems reasonable that
our beloved planet, a living organism, must also transform to receive the
Christ consciousness. This procedure will emerge in the much heralded Earth
changes, representing dissolution of the old and archaic illusionary concepts.
Today there is much discussion and conjecture about the Earth changes and how
they will affect us individually and collectively.
There is a polarity created where some move into more exalted states of Love,
Joy and Bliss, a reunion with the creator, and others take the downward spiral
into fear, anger, separation and control often blaming and projecting in
emotional outbursts. In the latest tests at Stanford, monkeys, when exposed to
magnetic field fluctuations, showed behaviour from
comatose to self mutilation. Our magnetic fields have been undergoing
fluctuations as well. Do we have to behave like monkeys? Well if we choose the
monkey mind often referred to as reactionary mind or the ego, yes. If we align
ourselves with love and compassion, divine mind, the answer is an emphatic NO.
On a scale of 1 to 10 in field strength the Earth's magnetic fields are now at
around 1.5. This also increases the possibility of meteor impacts with two
large meteor showers scheduled in the near future. This drop in field strength
is often a precursor to a magnetic pole shift. If we match the higher
consciousness and energy flowing with it releasing the lower vibrational attitudes and emotions, our frequency will rise
beyond the effects on the lower mental and emotional levels.
MichaelCadry seems also to have drunk from the same bucket
this month:
In the latter years it is written,
"And Michael shall stand up for the children of your (Daniel's ancestors
and Israel's children and children's children and further), people and there
SHALL BE a time of TROUBLE SUCH AS NEVER was even to a nation at that same
time, and at THAT TIME shall thy people be delivered, everyone who is found
written in the BOOK. And many of the dead shall awake, some to everlasting life
and some to SHAME and CONTEMPT. And they that be WISE
shall SHINE like the Brightness of heaven (the firmament) and they that turn
many to righteousness SHALL BE AS THE STARS forever and ever." When our
spiritual energy inside our earthly body leaves our dead body behind, we go to
heaven, for those who are so blessed, and we inhabit
the stars with our energy and we can move at the speed of light, but not
with wings. Just by God's saying so. And we are a ball of energy among many balls of energy that
inhabit each star. And this is heaven, where there are many mansions, and I (Jesus) go to prepare a place for you (Venus).
I (Jesus) am the bright and morning star (Venus) and even as I received it from
my Father, so I give it to those who honour me.
You Preterists have SO MUCH TO LEARN!! YOU are so FAR from the Lord that you are just Satan's
Parasites, confused by him so much that you are ready to die for your
false beliefs and you are not one iota of being closer to God than anybody in
the earth.
The race card seems to be a joker
Mickiel from TWeb
offered two gems worthy of Gold, one from a message, the other in his signature:
Theres a place in theologyweb
for christians only, I'm not christian
and have been put out of it before. Can you explain why that is not racist?
I'm not a bigot,
I just don't like white people all that much.
And there’s also a hidden message in the Wallace and gromit
feature about eating cheese
The
Narnia movie will soon be out, and it seems some
people are bracing for it. The Globe and Mail newspaper, on "The
Chronicles of Narnia" movie that is coming
out in December, said:
Is this the next super-franchise? The
series starts with the most famous of C. S. Lewis's Narnia
stories, about English kids who go through the back of a wardrobe into a new
world, where they must overthrow an evil witch with the help of a messianic
lion.
Be alert for hidden Christian messages.
They’re not the only ones who figured this out. Someone
else, one Frank Cerabino, has warned us that the
corresponding McDonald's Happy Meals may contain thinly veiled Christian
theology:
When you can combine the forces of
Disney, the McDonald's Happy Meal and Gov. Jeb Bush
in one tidy package - all working together to cram thinly veiled Christian
theology down the gullets of Florida's schoolchildren - you've got yourself a
hell of a plan.
This December, just in time for Christmas, the movie version of "The Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe" will be in theaters everywhere, much to the
delight of Christian evangelicals, who see the children's tale as it was
intended - a way to subtly introduce the Christ story to young people.
Make sure you also check out my footnotes
From “the poky little puppy”
Moses
advertised
his new book on TWeb thusly:
Darth, just to shut you up, read
some works by Edmund D. Cohen and Sherwin T. Wine, Joseph McCabe, Joseph Wheless, Ken Smith, etc. etc. Also since you mentioned the
Internet you really should go to
"religioustolerance.org" for a balanced view on religion.
Yes I have now read some of the works of Arkadyia or whatever Edited by a moderator. her name is and I agree with a lot
of what she says.
Also here is a list of reference bokks used in the
compilation of my book God-101.
Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis
The Sociology of Religion – Max Weber
Modern Man in Search of a Soul – Carl Jung
The Will to Believe, and Other Essays – William James
Judaism – Arthur Hertzberg
The Pagan Christ – Tom Harpur
The Silence of Jesus – James Breech
Protestantism – J Leslie Dunstan
The Lost Gospel, the Book of “Q” – Burton Mack
The Hutchinson History of the World – J. M. Roberts
The Story of Civilization, Vol. 1 - 10 – Will and Ariel Durant
The Varieties of Religious Experience – William James
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life – Emile Durkheim
The Phenomenon of Man – Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
Holy Blood, Holy Grail – Michael Baigent,
Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
When Religion Becomes Evil – Charles Kimball
The Rules of Sociological Method – Emile Durkheim
The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins
Language, Truth and Logic – Alfred J. Ayer
The Emergence of Man – John Pfeiffer
Hinduism – Luis Renou
The Four Loves – C. S. Lewis
Consciousness Explained – Daniel Dennett
The Meme Machine – Susan Blackmore
The Road less Traveled – M. Scott Peck
Buddhism – Richard A. Gard
For Christ’s Sake – Tom Harpur
Further Down the Road Less Traveled – M. Scott Peck
Cultural Anthropology – William A Haviland
Catholicism – George Brantl
Viruses of the Mind – R. Brodie
The Problem of Pain – C. S. Lewis
Islam – John A. Williams
-and-
(In case these books get a little too dry!)
Sex in History – Reay Tannahill
the agonist of defeat
Ed Babinski plumbs the depths of modern
American ignorance with a reply to my point:
agonistic persons (which means 70% of the
world today)
with:
70%? I admit to being a little agnostic about that figure. But then with you
being nearly an inerrantist Bible believer you
probably view anyone with less than your own level of certainty as an
"agnostic."
What do you think of people whose views include some dilution of agnosticism,
i.e., whose views are a mix of religious or spiritual faith, hope, love, and
agnosticism?
In short, Edski confused “agonistic” (a word that means,
oriented towards honor and shame principles) with agnostic. Now that’s a Golden
Duh, but not the only one. Morton
Gneiss on TWeb blew himself a bubble in the same subject, as well as
with other comments:
Personally I think that, in the case
of biblical discussion, attacking scholarship is the
weakest and most dispicable of all strawmen. In most cases it says to me that the person lacks the ability to contest the argument itself.
But attacking the scholarship doesn't refute the argument, it only begs refutation by a more
'appropriate' source. I'm surprised that a non-Christian would adopt this
tactic on an issue that wasn't 'bible science' related. I only make this exception
for bible scientists because, by thier own history,
they are notorious for omiting and fabricating facts
and evidence to make thier case.
Bible scholarship doesn't necessarily make someone an objective critic and
expert of the bible. Very few people come away from
that line of study with the ability to objetively
criticize the bible.
As long as there is evidence supported to
make the case, the debator has done thier job. It's rediculous to
think that everyone should run out and get a PHD in every topic they wish to discuss, in fact that notion is fricken
stupid.
But he gets his Ignorance in Anthropology Award for these
comments in particular:
Did you mean to prove my point?
Shame-based systems don't have a supreme power or diety,
it's all honor based. That's the whole point. The impetus for being good is
radically different.
Anthropologist generally call Judeo-Christianity
'guilt' based, and today that's a valid position. How often do Christians use
the line 'but Jesus died for you!"? But the guilt is fear driven.
In a shame-based system the consequence for sin is bringing dishonor on yourself and invoking the shame of family and community. A
shame-based system doesn't have invisible men watching to make sure you do good..they instill in you the sense
that you should do good for the sake of being a good person.
The Bible and shame-based morality are entirely incompatible.
Basically, Morty didn’t know there was any difference between moral
and legal guilt. Oops.
“F.C.” stands for fried chicken
Finally, FC Julianus wins
the Circumscribed Cowardice Award for response to where I challenged him on
topics within my purview in a thread:
I'm sure you have
neither the courage nor the knowledge to debate me on any one of those subjects
after the posturing is done.
With:
Sure, care to pick a topic?
1. Old Testament Archaeology
2. Biblical Hebrew
3. New Testament Greek
4. Classical Arabic
5. Historical Reliability of the Torah
The only stipulation I ask for is that
you are not allowed to use one of your existing essays.
Silver duh
award winners
Kenite
earns the Multiple Idiocies Award for several comments; for example, thinking
that Greek and Latin words for priests make for totally different meanings.
Q: Then what pray tell are Lutheran
and Anglican priests?
A” They are presbyteroi,
not sacerdotes.
The English word is ambiguous.
And these
as well:
When Catholics tell me that there are 30 000 Protestant denominations, I tell
them that this is because Protestantism is 30 000 times more credible than
Catholicism. At least!
But not Catholic cultists. They go back to being unsaved every time they
go to mass, so they can kill Christ again.
Thebluetriangle wins the Man of a Mission Award for this
profession of fate:
Why am I so
certain there really is a code there? Because I was given the
task of finding the code by Jesus himself. It was and is an 'assignment'
I have to complete. That shouldn't convince you the code is real. Only the
evidence should do that. But you should understand that I am myself completely
convinced that the code is real. The most startling piece of evidence was two
verses that appeared on a bookmark belonging to my Alpha course director, which
a voice twice told her was for me. This was on 11/15/01, a day when I myself
received two signs, which were a mystery to me until this person confronted me
with the bookmark and asked me what was going on. The words were exactly as
follows:
Dear Bill
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your
whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Love Paul
These verses are I Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NIV) and I eventually discovered
that they are encoded with the numerical signature of God. In fact they are the
key that unlocked the entire code, because they show exactly how numbers are
encoded, by the two systems I showed earlier, used in the correct combination.
I Thess 5:23 (o) = 1559
Our Lord Jesus Christ (a) = 1559
I Thess 5:24 (o) = 468
The Lord God (a) = 468
Total ordinal value of the words = 2194
NIV Genesis 1:1 (a) =
2194
Zipperhead earns a Appreciation
of Disabilties Award for this comment:
This kid at college was
18 and had aspergers and he was a complete nutball.
All he did was rant and rave about how much he hated
God.
I'm sure God hates him a lot more.
Rahab warrants the Trinitarian Confusion Award for
the following. Asked, I don't understand how that is a problem, considering Jesus
prayed to the Father on many occasion. Did he "pray to himself" then?
The reply was:
Some would
describe it as "looking for the inner oneself". Yet still the product
of self introspection. Reflection.
Meditation on what to do next. Who gave up the
"Holy Ghost" at the time He expired? Who dispensed the Holy Spirit on
the Disciples? Do you or not separate the Holy Spirit from Christ? Where does
the Holy Spirit come from? Who is He by essence and nature? Who is Christ by
essence and nature?
Freelight wins the Rambling Feelgood
Diatribe of the Week merit for this:
I would like propose a universalism
which posits that all souls and angels(however
fallen or depraved) will ultimately be restored to the Light. God must
love all sentient beings eternally if He is Eternal LOVE. Can a Father confine
His angel sons to everlasting destruction, detention or suffering? The angels
are actually higher sons of God than us they being prior and more original
creations/offspring of Deity. Lets recall that all
things/beings also were created thru the Logos so
angels too must return by Way of the Christ-Light.
As far as the angels go....the human perspective(from
some writers of the NT)
is kinda bleak for the rebels....BUT...such could represent imperfect knowledge and bias on
mans part. Perhaps God has a salvation/redemption plan for His fallen
sons among the angels that we are not wholly privy about. This would seem to be
Loves will, plan and ultimatum.
Okay, SO this guy is saying that because the writers of the NT were human beings (though claiming
divine inspiration), we should assume errancy with
them and side with his opinion even though he is indirectly admitting that his
is is human in origin?
Here we have tensions between the omnipotence of Gods Love, the
dynamics and sovereignty of free will among the angels, and certain laws which
govern souls relative to their eternal or final destiny. This discussion will
be on the 'angels' only (given what knowledge we have and/or can elaborate) -
naturally we will filter our logic thru human senses/feelings,
etc. - try to be open minded and consider that even though the Bible does not
give us a replete knowledge on angels and their destinies.....all of creation
is in birth pangs waiting for the revelation of the sons
of God thru the redemptive-mediation of the Christ - I see this saving
grace covering the Whole of Creation and must include all the sons of God -
Angel and Man. With the angels the dynamics, effects of the salvation wrought
by the Christ may certainly be different...but of a good and divine benefit
nonetheless. I may be guilty of being an eternal optimist, but consider the
doctrine of Irresistible grace from a univeralist
purview...wherein Gods Will ultimately reigns in every plane,(every heart and
soul), dimension and world in His vast and infinite Universe. This is at
last....the triumph of Love.
Bagger Vance finds himself seated with the
Discerning Mutually Exclusive Truths Award for this one:
This is actually interesting. If you
know nothing of it how can you disbelieve it? Can you
at least say that it is possible the Koran is correct based simply on the fact
that you don't know anything about it?
You believe that the Bible is the true divine word but by believing that you
are commenting on the other religious books that you know nothing about by your
own admission.
What most people can not understand is?GOD IS 1ST INTERESTED IN OUR SPIRIT.It
MUST COME 1ST.If we need sickness to be humble or too follow HIm.Then it may happen.HIS
perfect will?Is us healed and having all spiritual blessing.WALKING ON THE WATER!But
HE will not put anything,before your spirit or your
growing too be like HIS SON JESUS CHRIST!It may take
sickness to keep us humble and in fellowship with HIM .If that be the cases with
you?Thank HIm.HE LOVES YOU
THAT much.BECAUSE as you know?When
we suffer?HE SUFFERS.
JUSt as our kids suffer?We suffer
WE MUST SEE this simple truth!We need to get in touch
with our spirit,if they are feed and used by the LORd.The rest falls into place.
It has always been the spirit 1st.
I personally think?Everything recieved
of us ,given by the HOLY GHOST is auto matic.of
course we should or could LAY HANDS ON OTHERS for them to recieve.But
it does not have to be this way.As we see?PAUL recieved most everything
right from GOD.Even most of the WORD we now live by!We indeed have full access.We
count some things above another.But the truth is?HE counts most every thing as important .The things that
are best are the things that bless many.it has always
been to give.HE gives ,WE give.Never
just for us to selfishly have.But even then ?HE will give,But not a great deal.HE is a
giver .WE MUST BE GIVERS.We must quit thionking I want.And start thinking,I want! to give
LORD GIVE ME,THAT I MIGHT GIVE IT TOO OTHERS
I WANT TOO LIFT YOU UP LORD.AND LOVE AS YOU LOVE ME!
USE ME BY GIVING TO ME !THAT I WILL BOLDLY GIVE IT TO OTHERS OR USE IT,NOT FOR
ME LORD !BUT TO SHARE AND BLESSS OTHERS!I WANT NOTHING FOR ME LORD!Then if we truly believe our own WORDS.GREAT MIRACLE WILL
HAPPEN!
Our minds must be renewed to think like our LORD.WE CLEARLY SEE?HE GAVE EVERYTHING FOR THE CHURCH and died for the world.CAN WE DO LESS?You can take
this teaching to the graveand still reap from it.it will never be worthless!It
is the very mind of GOD!
As one
reader said, it's like what if a Word of Faith
minister got to close to a flame and suddenly exploded….and we hope he
practices the laying of hands on his keyboard so his Spacebar and Shift key can
finally get healed.
Now some
website awards:
http://www.maryisgod.bravehost.com/index.html
-- pseudo-Catholic trinitarian confusion/
http://www.stallman.org
which includes some of these gems:
Get even for 9/11: support gay marriage!
People will say, "That makes no sense--what does one have to do with the
other?" Which provides a chance to explain:
We don't know who the perpetrators are--perhaps Muslim fanatics, perhaps
Christian fanatics, perhaps both. It is hard to get even with people when you
can't identify them. How can we do it?
Both of those groups hate gays and oppose gay rights. Thus, supporting gay
marriage offers us a way to thwart the perpetrators, even not knowing which
group it was.
http://www.davidicke.com/
-- which I have told several people I consider too stupid to reply to.
http://www.newsarama.com/SDCC05/DC/Vertigo/SDCCTestament.html
announces the making of a Bible comic book which includes such Bible facts as:
Israelis used to drop babies into furnaces as a sacrifice.
The Abraham
and Isaac story got changed around during the Crusades
Moses has
man sex on top of mount Sinai
Aliens are
having sex with human women
"Joshua
was Moses’s apprentice, and the Bible talks of their encounters ‘face to face’—which, as any Greek
knows, is the sexual position reserved for man-to-man sacred sex - women are to
be done from behind."
Runilo wins the Diatribe Award from the atheist side
with this bit:
It amazes me that a rational and
intellectual society like the one we live in, still believes in gods.
Just about anything the bible says, goes against science and proof. The proof
is undeniably true, and is proven beyond any rational doubt. Yet, people seem
to turn a blind eye to it, saying it can’t be true, because a book says
otherwise, and believe only what they are brought up to believe.
All religions in the world have the exact same characteristics. They simply
don’t die out, because people keep convincing each other that what they believe
in is true.
Ever wondered why religion is geographically based? Like in the western world
we believe in Jesus, and on the other parts of the world, they believe other
religions?
The answer is as mentioned above. People believe only what they are raised up
to believe, and people keep convincing each other that their religion is true.
To further support my arguments, I know of a professor in
Whenever I encounter a Christian and ask him why he believes in a religion
which I find to be illogical, he will simply say that he can feel the power and
love of god, and that no one can prove that he doesn’t exist.
Seeing as only 16 percents of the worlds population
belong to Christianity, the rest of the world must obviously be lying or
imagining when they say they can feel god.
And last,
our old buddy Steven Carr shows us why some people in the
I have had a sneak preview of the
forthcoming Mr. Incredible film.
The father Mr. Incredible is in his super-hero home, seemingly retired from
active duty, while the wicked Dr. Death and Mr. Evil stalk the land.
The father sends his son to do battle with the supervillains.
For 3 years, the son battles the supervillains, doing
incredible stuff, like turning water into wine, or talking to the head supervillain in the desert.
Such incredible deeds worry the supervillains, so Dr.
Death and Mr. Evil decide to nail his hide.
They do all sorts of nasty things to him. He gets a right good flogging - a
real working-over. They then go back to their usual business of spreading evil.
His dad decides to rebuild him, and the son goes back off to the super-hero
home, where he now spends all his time telling people how he whupped those supervillains, good
and proper.
The film ends with his dad asking him when he is going back down to finish off
Dr. Death and Mr. Evil once and for all. The son replies that he can't say
exactly what day or hour he is going back down there, but it will be real soon
now.
Audience reaction in preview screenings has been mixed.
Bronze duh award winners
Lucretius
Now, when I take the position that
truth is relative, this means it does not apply to everyone, everything. Some
relative truths may appear absolute because they are moral standards adhered to
by a large majority. An example of this is murder. Most human beings believe
murder to be wrong. However, there are some, murderers for example, who do not
feel that murder is wrong. Thus, murdering being wrong is relative to the
beliefs of “the majority.”
A rebuttal I am expecting is “how can you make the statement that truth is
relative? Aren’t you making an absolute statement right there?” To answer this,
one must realize that truth is relative to logic. And who are we to say that
the absolute truth must be logical? We would not recognize absolute truth if it
stared us straight in the face, because it is not testable, and therefore an not falsifiable idea. If something is not falsifiable,
the burden of proof (resting on believers of absolute truth) cannot be gotten
rid of, and, just like any other made-up idea, we may safely assume it does not
exist.
So, what do I believe is absolutely true in this world? The only things that
possibly could be absolutely true are formal ideas made up by human beings. A
prime instance for this is mathematics. Two plus two is four. Always four. Why is this? Two is defined in such a way that
the sum of two and two will always be four. Of course, if I was wishing to be
extreme (some might say consistent) I could state that math is only relatively
true when we are viewing it logically, however, since math is nothing more than
a creation of the human mind (have you ever seen a “-1”?) it’s truth can be
considered absolute in comparison to something we view in the “real world.”
Then again, what the real world is only relative to my viewpoint.
So, what examples of relative truth are there in the real world? To exemplify
my point, I am going to briefly discuss Galilean Relativity. This is a very old
notion that there is no such thing as an absolute velocity. If I am on a bus
going 25 mph, I might say I am going 0 mph, however, someone watching from the
side of the bus could say I am traveling at 25 mph. Who is right? We both are.
It is all relative.
LakeGeorgeMan
You probably don't have enough
humility to deal with that basic fact. I understand, it takes some getting used to.
John
Loftus
The meaning of the passage
transcends the context.
Here then are three
conceptual problems with an incarnate God, that is, how can one person be truly
and fully God, and at the same time truly and fully a man: 1) God is
necessarily an uncreated being. Humans are essentially created beings.
Therefore Jesus is both created and uncreated; 2) God is necessarily
omniscient—he knows everything. Human beings are not omniscient beings.
Therefore, Jesus is both an omniscient and also not an omniscient being. But in
the New Testament Jesus didn’t act omniscient. He said he didn’t know the time
of his own return; 3) God is a morally perfect being, and as such could not be
tempted to do wrong. Human beings however, can be tempted to do wrong, and are
imperfect. Therefore, Jesus could not be tempted, nor do any wrong, and yet
we’re told that he was tempted to do wrong. 4) God is
omnipresent, but Jesus as a human being, was no
RaisingPaine
Notice how my refutations will be
succinct, as they appeal to the notion of common sense in people, while your
counters will go on and on, seemingly without end.
"This is just common sense. How
can a document which only includes detached anecdotes covering less than half
of Jesus' life...be considered a history of that
life?"
David A. Reed for his Bible Answer Machine:
http://bibleanswermachine.ww7.com/BibleAnswerMachine/cgi-bin/question/answer.cgi
Mercury_Rain
Cons:
-You hate videogames, they kill people.
-You hate the hip-hop, it has to much drugs and sex in
it.
-You hate the rock, it is Satan spawn.
-Your automatically sent to hell
-Your afraid of your God, and do not embrace him
-Half the world calls you an infidel
-Your a Christian
-You deny concrete evidence
-The Sun revolves around the world
-The World was created 4400 years ago, give or take.
Pros:
-Theres so many of you, its not funny
-You run everything
-Your God might, just might, kill all of your faily,
inflict you with boils, and take all of your money, just to prove something to
the Devil. You will get them back, maybe.
-You just <censored> someone related to you.
Ogui3
If God or Jesus appeared before you
and told you that incest was OK how many of you would honestly start sleep with
your cousins, sisters, aunts whatever
Ninjas
Beat Me Up
Uh, the Bible already says it's ok.
I mean, God made man and women, and Eve was Adam's daughter, and he
<censored> her to create a bunch of kids, who intermingled and made more
babies, etc.
And God, the Father of all mankind gave the <censored> to Mary, and she
made Super Jesus.
And I saw an episode of X-Files with incest, and thigns
were jsut fine.
truthmonger89
God is said to be a perfect,
omniscient, omnipotent deity. Since a perfect, omniscient, omnipotent deity is
capable of doing and creating anything, it has an infinite number of
possibilities to choose from when deciding which particular state of existence
the universe should be. Since it is impossible to traverse infinity, it is
impossible for such a deity to consider an infinite number of possibilities in
order to create a particular one. Therefore it is logically impossible that God
created the universe.
Thinker
Now...here be
an old argument I used to post here now and again...
Jesus comes back from the dead, visits the disciples, has a bite to eat, steps
out the door...
...then gets picked up by one of the roman patrols turning the city upside down
looking for him. He gets dragged before Pilate for the second time. Pilate,
being a brutal thug in a land known for its magicians (the jewish rabbis of the time were regarded as some of
the flat out best wizards in the roman empire) decides, rather reasonably, from
his POV, that Jesus cheated death somehow with some sort of magic trick. His
response is to turn to the nearest centurian and have
him run Jesus through more or less on the spot. But: Jesus has beaten death! He
*cannot* be killed. Instead, what the soldier *KNEW* should have been a mortal
blow had no effect on him at all. At this point, Pilate decides to pass the
buck, as it were, and has Jesus dumped on the next ship bound for
Nanimose
Anything with a
imaginative dramatic story line, which means movies, TV, Video Games and even
books (fantasy, I'm refraining from saying all stories,
cause I don't want to hurt feelers), is a big waste of
time.
all I know is that when it comes down to what's going to be done. Stories, and testimonies don't tell Jack about what a person
will do. When I was called to Christ at the age of 16 I spent so much of my
time watching certain movies, and getting into RPGs
(my favorite is FFX), I wasted so much of my
developing in christ time.
After looking back at it, I wanna say mostly christians are prone to this, but
the things that attract us to characters and stories is the 'glorifying of one
person' and 'our need for a saviour' or someone to
look up to. Watch Spiderman 2 and listen to Aunt May talking to Peter about how
we need heroes, it is that corny and sappy. Stories
open us up to emulations which if I remember correctly is a manifestation of
the flesh.
Re
Incarnation
Hmm. How about a famous one? The story of
Jesus? the son of God, started Christianity. Also,
read the Da Vinci Code, I am certain there were many
examples of the connection.
And to
close this time, a potpourri of comments collected in the past by a reader:
Logically, The cause of the Big bang might have
occurred after it happened.
---
Peeshaw. Resurrection.
Firstly, can you tell me how long the Bible has been out? And how many
translations there have been? The Bible has been bastardized from day one.
Everyone could have added small things here and there, until eventually it was
accepted as fact. Kind of like that experiment where you say "____ is
cool". Then everyone whispers it around the room, until it has
transfigured into something opposite.
---
The only proof of God is a 2000 year old book that was complied
by people who didn't even know where the world went when the Sun went down.
---
God exists within all. The Bible, Koran and all other religious books were
written by man and are thus fallible because the words or thoughts needed to
see or understand even a small part of the true power do not exist. Why follow
men, when you can attempt to understand the universe. Im
the priest, I should know
---
Get "The Lost Books of The Bible". It
changed me from being Baptist Christian to a beliver
in a "Godian".
---
Just cause science doesn't have all the answers
doesn't mean that religion, any religion, is correct.
---
No one ever said that God determined anything, just
the notion that the future CAN be known removes all free will from the
equation. Let's say I KNOW that you are walking into a police station with a
bag of coke and a shotgun. I can KNOW that you will be arrested later but I
didn't determine it in any way. Examples were never my strong point but you get
the idea.
---
But what made God?
---
Could God create a rock so big that not even He could lift it? If he can't
then he is not all powerful and if he can, he is not all powerful. This dispels
the idea of an all-powerful anything (let alone a God).
---
If God cannot get past man's simple logic, then he is NOT all-powerful.
---
Don't get me wrong; I've got nothing against Jesus Christ. A guy who gets
the **** beat out of him and then nailed to a cross is hardcore. I just don't
believe he's the son of some divine spirit.
---
That's what I don't get about religious people. Someone said they saw
something happen 2000 years ago, write it down, and suddenly millions of people
live their lives by it?
---
It's funny that people who live in first world countries and have access to
all the information that we have still believe in God and the bible and all
that.
It's a *amn fairy tale mixed in with historical events. Obviously every
human knows coming to life after death and all the crap is impossible so why
even bother to debate it?
You really think some invisible man in the sky is watching over you and
controlling everything? LOL if you do.
---
Christianity stole alot of aspects of the
"1st" beliefs and changed it around to suit their own vision. After
that several EDITS were made by different people through out the ages. (btw "1st" Religion refers to the EARTH religions
;)
---
nearly every religion is so similar it is irrelevant, they are just have
differing degrees of intolerance.
---
Christianity has a pretty standard concept of God. Old
white man with a long beard. Just like Zeus. Zeus had a son that could
do super-human things. So did God.